A machine according to this invention works as a motor according to the gas turbine cycle (the Joule/Brayton cycle) or as a refrigeration machine or heat pump according to the reversed gas turbine cycle. The invention thus includes a machine that can run either as a motor when the produced shaft power is utilised, a refrigeration machine when the produced cooling power is used or as a heat pump when the heating power is utilised. In both the motor case and the refrigeration/heat pump case a working medium is being compressed, heat is being added or subtracted, and the working medium is thereafter expanded. If heat is being added to the compressed working medium in the heat exchanger, the machine according to the invention will become a motor. If heat on the other hand is subtracted, the machine according to the invention will become a refrigeration machine or a heat pump. The main components, the compressor, the heat exchanger and the expander are according to the invention joined into one single rotating part, hereinafter called the rotor. Two media are flowing through the rotor, namely, the working medium that is compressible and the heat carrying fluid. When the machine is used as a motor, hot oil could be used as a heat carrying fluid and for instance air as working medium. Alternatively an exothermal reaction for instance combustion in the working medium itself can be used as a heat carrying fluid. When the machine is used as a refrigeration machine/heat pump air can be used as a working medium and for instance water as heat carrying fluid.
In another form of the machine, when the working medium is not atmospheric air, an additional heat exchanger is needed to another fluid called the cold carrying fluid. In the motor case, the cold carrying fluid is absorbing heat while in the refrigeration or heat pump case, it is delivering heat to the working medium.
In a third form of the machine as a motor, the mechanical energy output is delivered fully or partly from an external expander. If the machine in this form is run as a heat pump or refrigeration machine, the rotor rotation and the propulsion of the working medium are accomplished fully or partly with an external compressor.
The gas turbine cycle is normally accomplished by first compressing the working medium (normally air) in a separate compressor after which it is heated in a separate combustion chamber and finally is expanded in a separate turbine. In all three components the velocity relative to the walls, guidevanes and blades are high which results in frictional losses.
Heat pumps similar to the invention are shown in the Swedish patents 122418 and 163924. According to the first patent, the heat carrying fluid is led outside the rotating heat exchanger whereby the velocity difference between the heat carrying fluid and the heat exchanger surface becomes large and the frictional losses between the heat carrying fluid and the heat exchanging surface becomes large. In the second patent an attempt to reduce the velocity difference between the rotating heat exchanger and the heat carrying fluid has been made, by introducing a secondary separating wall, so that the velocity difference is divided into two parts. This method will not likely result in an especially large reduction of the frictional losses.
A similar idea is also described in GB 1443802A. In this invention the heat exchange is integrated with the compressor, and the expander is placed on a separate shaft so that the expander is not rotating with the same angular velocity as the compressor. FR2699653A1 describes another similar idea where the compression among other things is accomplished with an axial compressor. In DE2729134-A, a machine is described where among other things the heat is transferred by radiation from the heat carrying fluid which runs outside the machine and where the cold carrying fluid runs centrally in the machine. The patent GB2128310 shows an advanced magnetic construction where the heat carrying fluid runs in the surround stator body and the cold carrying fluid runs through the shaft. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,490,064 and 2,451,873 solutions are shown where the heat exchange takes place during the compression phase and not as in our invention at substantially constant pressure. The U.S. Pat. No. 2,490,064 and GB-1420722 differ from our invention as the heat carrying fluid is not rotating inside the rotor.